Method and system for transmission and display of rich-media alerts

ABSTRACT

There is provided a method and system of generating a rich-media message using a short message service (SMS) message. In one aspect, the method comprises encoding data and rich-media content information to generate an encoded rich-media message, and formatting the encoded rich-media message into a rich-media SMS message. In one aspect, the method includes transmitting the rich-media SMS over a network. In another aspect, the method includes receiving the rich-media SMS by a mobile device, decoding the SMS, and displaying the message. The method may include obtaining rich-media content from a server. In one embodiment, a system for communicating a rich-media message to a mobile device comprises an alerts generator configured to encode a rich-media message and format the message into a rich-media SMS, a content server configured to provide rich-media content to a mobile device configured to decode and display the rich-media SMS.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is based on and claims priority from U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 60/899,103, filed on Feb. 2, 2007, which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to data and voicecommunications. More particularly, the present invention relates tomobile communications.

2. Background Art

As commerce becomes ever more dependent on the ability to exchangeinformation rapidly, independent of locational constraints, the economicimportance of mobile communications becomes correspondingly great. Alongwith greater reliance on mobile communication devices, comes increaseddemand for ready, low cost access to graphically rich media, using thosedevices.

One conventional approach to providing convenient low cost mobilecommunication involves use of a messaging format known as short messageservice (SMS). SMS is a character-based short messaging format commonlyused for the exchange of text messages between users of mobile devices,for example, mobile telephones, or between a server and a mobile device.Advantages associated with the SMS format include its uniformimplementation across all mobile carriers, and all mobile devicesavailable on the market today. Due to its ubiquity, SMS is tightlyintegrated to mobile device functionality, making SMS messaging easy fora typical user of such a device to utilize for communication purposes.

The SMS format imposes a strict limit on the size of an SMS message,however, constraining messages composed from, for example, 7-bitcharacters, to a length of 160 characters. Because of such limitations,SMS messages are typically text strings of truncated or abbreviatedwords, lacking graphical enhancements. Conventional approaches tocommunicating more visually rich or complex information via SMS messageshave been largely unsuccessful in reconciling the character size of avisually complex message with the character constraint imposed by theSMS format.

Another conventional approach to providing richer message content to amobile device involves use of another messaging format known asmultimedia messaging service (MMS). The MMS format was developed withmessaging capacity to provide audio, visual, and graphical elements tousers of mobile devices. Although sometimes referred to as the evolutionof SMS, MMS tends to coexist with SMS on mobile devices, to the extentthat MMS has been deployed, and complements SMS messaging rather thanfunctioning as its substitute.

The advantage offered by MMS in delivering rich-media content to mobileusers is its messaging capacity, which permits inclusion of rich text,graphics, video, and audio elements in an MMS message. Itsdisadvantages, however, are numerous, and have prevented MMS fromserving as a satisfactory substitute for SMS, despite its capacity fordelivering richer content. Disadvantages associated with MMS includelack of uniform implementation across mobile carriers and mobiledevices, and higher intrinsic cost for exchange of an MMS message. Inaddition, and perhaps due to its lack of uniform implementation, MMSdoes not tend to be tightly integrated to mobile device functionality,and thus requires greater user involvement and expertise for itssuccessful utilization. The difficulty in its use, together with a rigidcontent format, and greater expense, has prevented MMS from satisfyinguser demands for a convenient and cost effective means for obtainingrich-media content.

Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficienciesin the art by providing a widely implemented, efficient, and low costmeans for communicating rich-media messages that are readily accessibleto users of common mobile devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method and system for transmission and display of rich-media alerts,substantially as shown in and/or described in connection with at leastone of the figures, as set forth more completely in the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The features and advantages of the present invention will become morereadily apparent to those ordinarily skilled in the art after reviewingthe following detailed description and accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates a diagram of a communication network for transmissionand display of rich-media alerts, in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a flowchart for encoding rich-media content into anSMS message, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flowchart for encoding rich-media text and graphicscontent into the payload of a rich-media sports alert SMS, according toone embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 illustrates a flowchart for combining and encoding multimediagraphical, video, and audio elements into the payload of a rich-mediasports alert SMS, according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart for sending and displaying rich-mediaalerts via SMS, according to one embodiment of the present invention;and

FIGS. 6A, 6B, and 6C illustrate rich-media alerts, according toembodiments of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following description contains specific information pertaining tothe implementation of the present invention. One skilled in the art willrecognize that the present invention may be implemented in a mannerdifferent from that specifically discussed in the present application.Moreover, some of the specific details of the invention are notdiscussed in order not to obscure the invention. The specific detailsnot described in the present application are within the knowledge of aperson of ordinary skill in the art. The drawings in the presentapplication and their accompanying detailed description are directed tomerely exemplary embodiments of the invention. To maintain brevity,other embodiments of the invention, which use the principles of thepresent invention, are not specifically described in the presentapplication and are not specifically illustrated by the presentdrawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates a diagram of communication network 100 fortransmission and display of rich-media alerts, in accordance with oneembodiment of the present invention. Communication network 100 includespacket network 102, alerts generator 106 residing on content server 110,short message service center (SMSC) 112, mobile communication carrier114, and mobile device 116 comprising mobile operating system 118,alerts software 120, mobile cache 122, and mobile display 124.

As shown in FIG. 1, alerts generator 106 receives data or message 104from packet network 102, and encodes message 104 to generate an encodedrich-media message or alert 108, which is then transmitted by contentserver 110, and received by mobile device 116. In other embodiments,communication network 100 may include more or less elements than areshown in FIG. 1, and data or message 104 may originate from varioussources other than packet network 102, including but not limited tohuman communication, radio transmission, telephone communication, andmanual input, for example. Alerts generator 106 packetizes or formatsthe encoded rich-media message or alert information into a 160-characterSMS message, producing rich-media SMS 108. Following encoding andformatting, rich-media SMS 108 is transmitted from content server 110 toSMSC 112 in compliance with small message peer-to-peer (SMPP) packageprotocols or other data-transmission protocols. Rich-media alert SMS 108is then relayed to mobile communication carrier 114, and on to mobiledevice 116.

Mobile device 116 serves as the destination for rich-media alert SMS108, and may be any device capable of receiving data transmissionsdirected at software resident on the device, such as a mobile phone orpersonal digital assistant (PDA), for example. In one embodiment, mobiledevice 116 comprises alerts software 120, integrated with mobileoperating system 118, mobile cache 122 and mobile display 124. Accordingto the present embodiment, mobile operating system 118 responds toaddress information contained in rich-media SMS 108 by routing it toalerts software 120. Alerts software 120 depacketizes and decodesrich-media alert SMS 108, and may initiate communication with contentserver 110 via packet network 102. In one embodiment, mobile device 116sends query 126 to content server 110 seeking authentication and datatransfer, for example.

When communication is established between mobile device 116 and contentserver 110, graphical and multimedia elements 128, as well asconfiguration update information, and decoding procedures may bedownloaded from content server 110 to mobile device 116. In oneembodiment, identification of desired graphical and multimedia elements,as well as a reference to their location on content server 110 arecontained in rich-media alert SMS 108. As alerts software 120depacketizes and decodes rich-media alert SMS 108, alerts software 120distinguishes between optional and required rich-media content, andcoordinates retrieval of optional rich-media content from content server110 and mobile cache 122. In short, mobile device 116 can obtainrich-media display information from content server 110 based on therich-media information within encoded rich-media message 108. Graphicalelements previously downloaded from content server 110 and cached onmobile device 116, as well as graphical elements loaded onto mobiledevice 116 as part of alerts software 120, are available for viewing onmobile display 124 without additional data download. Those graphical andmultimedia elements not previously cached are downloaded for display aspart of the rich-media alert.

In one embodiment of the present invention, display of an incomingrich-media alert SMS can be achieved without the above-describedcommunication with content server 110, however. For example, in theevent a communication cannot be established between mobile device 116and content server 110 subsequent to receipt of a rich-media alert SMS,software 120 coordinates display of only those optional rich-mediaelements previously cached or loaded onto mobile device 116, formattingthe alert to compensate for absence of the unavailable elements. Thus,even without establishing a communication with content server 110subsequent to reception of rich-media alert SMS 108, mobile device 116may still display an alert with enhanced rich-media components, incontrast to conventional SMS communications.

Communication network 100 can be utilized in, for example, a commercialsubscriber network for sports, weather, or news alerts, an emergencyservices network, a medical alert network, or in any other kind ofcommunications network in which information transfer is enabled orenhanced by inclusion of rich-media elements in voice band messages.

As described above, in one embodiment, the present invention uses theSMS message format utilized for transmission of text messages totransmit rich-media alerts. This is accomplished by sending encodedmessages via SMS. One embodiment uses character-based encoding, butothers can use bit-based encoding. The coded messages can beself-contained, or they may include information that indicates whereadditional information and/or rich-media display elements may beobtained from content server 100. Although various embodiments of thepresent invention are described based on the SMS message format, thepresent invention is not limited to the SMS message format and othermessage formats, whether character-based or bit-based, may easily beutilized by the present invention.

FIG. 2 illustrates flowchart 200 for encoding rich-media content into anSMS message, according to one embodiment of the present invention. Thepresent embodiment shows a character-based encoding scheme for SMSutilizing 160 characters of 7 bits each, and is exemplary only. Otherembodiments may use characters of other lengths, i.e. 8-bit characters,or 16-bit characters, for example. Although not included in flowchart200, in one embodiment a compression algorithm may be applied to the SMSmessage before or after encoding.

Referring now to step 210 of flowchart 200 in FIG. 2, at step 210 offlowchart 200, the first eleven characters of a 160-character SMSmessage are dedicated to address information, in order to direct arich-media alert SMS to alerts software previously loaded onto a mobiledevice. When such a mobile device receives a rich-media alert SMS, themobile operating system identifies the SMS message as rich-media encodedon the basis of the character string portion containing addressinformation. As a result, the mobile operating system activates alertssoftware 120, and routes the rich-media alert SMS to alerts software 120for decoding and display.

At step 220 of flowchart 200, the twelfth character of the 160-characterSMS message is set as a tracking character. This makes it possible totrack the status of the message, such as whether the message has beenread. Certain elements of the 160-character SMS (the twelfth character,for example) may be modified by alerts software 120 for the purpose ofmaintaining status or modifying or updating the properties of the alert.

At step 230 of flowchart 200, characters 13 and 14 of the 160-characterSMS message are encoded with the type of rich-media alert contained inthe SMS message. There may be various types of rich-media alerts, eachcorresponding to a set of graphics or multimedia elements, and aformatting protocol for their display. For example, an alert type may bea final score alert for a sporting event, a fantasy news alert, or avideo alert. Graphics may include team logos or still pictures, forexample, while multimedia elements may be video or audio clips, forexample. The rich-media alert typing information encoded in characters13 and 14 is similar to metadata, because it governs interpretation ofthe rich-media payload to follow. As a result, an embodiment of thepresent invention permits use of a display protocol for rich-mediacontent that is effectively self-defining.

At step 240 of flowchart 200, characters 15 and 16 of the 160-characterSMS message are encoded with the category of rich-media alert containedin the SMS message. As with alert types, there may be various categoriesof rich-media alert, each corresponding to a subset of graphics ormultimedia elements. Where a rich-media alert is a sports alert, forexample, an alert category may correspond to a specific sport such ascollegiate basketball or professional football, for example.Specification of an alert category in characters 15 and 16 makesdisplaying rich-media elements more customizable and extensible byallowing a greater number of graphical treatments than would be the casewithout the additional level of alert specificity.

At step 250 of flowchart 200, characters 17-27 of the 160-character SMSmessage are used to record a reference time for the SMS message. Areference time might be the time that the event generating an alertoccurred, for example. Reference time information is included in the SMSmessage partly so that the alerts software decoding it can expiremessages properly. Expiration of messages is a discrimination functionincluded in the rich-media application software, to prevent display ofalerts that have become stale or irrelevant due to the passage of timesince the message reference time. The expiration time for rich-mediaalerts encoded in SMS may be alert specific, for example, so that a newsalert might expire more or less quickly than an emergency alert, forexample. In one embodiment, alert expiration time may be user specific,in which case the alerts software might respond to data acquired throughcommunication with a content server. Message expiration may occurbecause a mobile device has been turned off for an extended period oftime, for example. Another reason for including reference timeinformation within the body of a rich media alert may be so that alertssoftware can display that time to a user. It is worth noting that SMSnetworks do not guarantee delivery time for an SMS. While it may beimportant for a user to see what time the event giving rise to arich-media alert occurred, and an embodiment of the present inventioncan convey that information, conventional SMS displays the time amessage was actually delivered by the mobile network.

At step 260 of flowchart 200, characters 28-160 of the 160-character SMSmessage string are encoded with a rich-media alert payload. According tothe present embodiment, previously described characters 1-27 may bestatic in that they can follow the same format for all exemplary alerttypes, and contain data and metadata governing display of the rich-mediaalert payload contained in characters 28-160. Rich-media payload maycomprise text and graphics, for example, or combine multimediagraphical, video, and audio elements, for example.

FIG. 3 shows flowchart 300, which illustrates the steps, according toone embodiment of the present invention, in which rich-media text andgraphics content may be encoded into the payload of an exemplaryrich-media sports alert SMS. Referring now to step 362 of flowchart 300,the first four characters of a 133-character rich-media payload, i.e.characters 28-31 of the 160-character SMS message, are used to identifythe home team in a sports event generating a rich-media alert. Alertssoftware resident on a mobile device recognizes that characters 28-31correspond to home team identification information, because metadatadescribing the rich-media alert type, and contained in characters 13 and14 described in step 230 of FIG. 2 govern interpretation of payloadcontent. Display of home team identification information may includedisplay of a team logo, for example. The particular graphical elementshowing the logo is an external asset, because it requires retrieval ofa display object that, while identified within the SMS message, residesoutside of it. Such external assets may reside on a content serverand/or on a mobile cache located on a mobile device.

At step 364 of flowchart 300, the fourth through seventh characters of a133-character rich-media payload, i.e. characters 32-35 of the160-character SMS message, are used to identify the away team in asports event generating a rich-media alert. Similar to display of a hometeam identifier, discussed in step 362 of flowchart 300, display of awayteam identification information may include display of a team logo, forexample. Location and retrieval of the appropriate graphics for the homeand away teams are expedited by rich-media alert category informationspecifying a particular sport and contained in characters 15 and 16described in step 240 of FIG. 2 At step 366 of flowchart 300, characters36-38 of the 160-character SMS message are encoded with a home teamscore. An away team score follows as encoded characters 39-41, in step368.

At step 370 of flowchart 300, characters 42-50 of the 160-character SMSmessage may be encoded with a game identifier and location for thesporting event giving rise to a rich-media alert SMS. Game identifierinformation may allow a user to interact with the alert by linkingdirectly to game information available on a content server, on anotherapplication resident on the mobile device, to a WAP page, or to anyother resource or service to which a mobile operating system can link.

At step 372 of flowchart 300, characters 51-70 of the 160-character SMSmessage are used to record relevant game timing information. Relevantgame timing information might be the time remaining in a sporting event,for example, or the time of occurrence of the action generating therich-media alert.

At step 374 of flowchart 300, remaining characters 71-160 of the160-character SMS message are encoded with a game report, providing textor statistical information about game status or outcome, for example.

Turning now to FIG. 4, flowchart 400 describes the steps, according toone embodiment of the present invention, in which multimedia graphical,video, and audio elements may be combined and encoded into the payloadof an exemplary rich-media sports alert via SMS.

At step 462 of flowchart 400, the first eight characters of a133-character rich-media payload, i.e. characters 28-35 of the160-character SMS message, are used to encode inline graphic data. Asdescribed in conjunction with discussion of step 362 in FIG. 3, alertssoftware resident on a mobile device recognizes that characters 28-35correspond to inline graphic identification information because metadatadescribing the rich-media alert type, and contained in characters 13 and14 described in step 230 of FIG. 2, govern interpretation of payloadcontent. Display of rich-media alert inline graphics may comprisedisplay of a particular still picture of an athlete, for example. Theparticular graphical element showing the image is an external asset,retrievable from a content server or directly from a mobile cache, aspreviously described.

At step 464 of flowchart 300, the ninth through sixteenth characters ofa 133-character rich-media payload, i.e. characters 36-43 of the160-character SMS message, may be encoded with a story identifier andlocation for the specific event giving rise to a rich-media alert SMS.Story identifier information may allow a user to interact with the alertby linking directly to a full story available on a content server, andavailable via packet network communication.

At step 466 of flowchart 400, characters 44-63 of the 160-character SMSmessage may be encoded with a text headline for the story accompanying amultimedia sequence. A text headline might read “Top Story,” forexample. Characters 64-124 may be encoded with story reportage in textformat, at subsequent step 468.

At step 470 of flowchart 400, characters 125 and 126 may be used toencode the type and format of a first multimedia element in a multimediasequence. Type and format data serve as metadata for the followingencoded multimedia element by preparing the alerts software to displaythe element properly. Multimedia element type and format data mayprepare the alerts software for display of a graphical PNG, JPG, or GIFelement, for example, or a video 3GPP, or MP4 element, or audio MP3,AAC, or MIDI element, for example.

At step 472 of flowchart 400, characters 127-134 of the 160-characterSMS message are encoded with a source address for a first multimediaelement. That multimedia element, whether graphical, video, or audio, isan external asset, which may be retrieved via communication between amobile device and a rich-media content server for example.

At step 474 of flowchart 400, characters 135-136 of the 160-characterSMS message may be encoded with a time duration for a first multimediaelement. Where a multimedia element is a video or audio clip, theduration of the clip is self-determining. Where, however, a graphicalfirst element is displayed as part of a graphical still slideshow, forexample, a multimedia element time duration would control how long afirst element was displayed as part of a rich-media alert, before afollowing element in a multimedia sequence were to appear.

At step 476 of flowchart 400, characters 137-160 of the 160-characterSMS message may be used to encode two additional multimedia elements, asdescribed in previous steps 470-474. A multimedia sequence may containany combination or any subset of three multimedia elements. A multimediasequence may comprise a slideshow of multiple graphical elements, or asequence of consecutive video clips, for example. In addition, where anaudio element and video or graphical element are combined, the alertssoftware may include a protocol for their presentation. A video orgraphical element followed immediately by an audio element might resultin both being displayed simultaneously, for example.

FIG. 5 shows flowchart 500, which illustrates the steps of a method forsending and displaying rich-media alerts via SMS, according to oneembodiment of the present invention. Although the present embodimentincludes the entirety of a rich-media alert in a single SMS messages,other arrangements are possible. In one embodiment, rich-media contentspans more than one SMS message. Regardless of the number of SMSmessages required to display the rich-media alert, the format of thedata contained within each SMS may be changed to include a sequencenumber, and/or an identifier that uniquely identifies the SMS. Themessage may also include an identifier of the sender(s) and/or therecipient(s) of the message.

Referring now to step 502 of flowchart 500 in FIG. 5, at step 502 offlowchart 500, alerts software is loaded on a mobile device andintegrated with the mobile operating system.

At step 504 of flowchart 500, rich-media formatting and content areencoded into an SMS message. The encoding process involves recordingdata and metadata, as well as locator information for external assets,within the constraints imposed by a 160-character SMS message.

At step 506 of flowchart 500, a rich-media alert SMS message addressedto alerts software previously loaded on a mobile device, is received bya client device.

At step 508 of flowchart 500, a mobile operating system responds to arich-media alert SMS by activating previously loaded alerts software.When a mobile device receives a rich-media alert SMS, the mobileoperating system identifies the SMS message as intended for alertssoftware on the basis of the character string portion containing addressinformation. The mobile operating system activates the alerts software,and routes the rich-media alert SMS to it for decoding and display.

At step 510 of flowchart 500, alerts software initiates communicationwith a content server, authenticating a user and beginning a dataexchange process. In one embodiment, communication with a content serverat step 510 elicits a content server response comprising fields for thealerts software version in use, whether an update for alerts software isavailable, and whether or not an update is required, as well as userverification, alert expiration time, and fields for dynamicconfiguration of a rich-media alert, for example. Dynamic configurationmay comprise fields modifying a rich media display based on updating ofan alert subsequent to its transmission, selectively includingadvertising information, and options to customize alert configuration toindividual user parameters. For example, dynamic configuration mightinclude instructions to include or omit particular rich-media elementsencoded in an SMS as optional elements, or provide authorization for auser to forward a rich-media alert to other mobile devices, and log thatactivity.

Display of a rich-media alert received via SMS may go forward withoutthe communication step described in step 510. Failure to execute step510 may limit graphical content of a mobile display to elementspreviously loaded on a mobile device as part of the alerts software, orpreviously downloaded from a content server and stored on a mobilecache. Even in that case, however, encoding of an SMS message inaccordance with one of the present embodiments results in display ofenhanced rich-media components, when compared to conventional SMSmessages.

At step 512 of flowchart 500, a rich media alert SMS is decoded byalerts software previously loaded on the mobile device.

At step 514 of flowchart 500, alerts software distinguishes betweenoptional and required rich-media elements evoked by the decodedrich-media formatting instructions.

At step 516 of flowchart 500, rich-media graphical and multimediaelements specified during decoding of a rich-media SMS and storedlocally on a mobile cache are retrieved at the mobile device. Step 516reduces network traffic associated with retrieval of external assetsfrom a content server.

At step 518 of flowchart 500, rich-media graphical and multimediaelements specified during decoding of a rich-media SMS and not stored ona mobile cache are retrieved remotely from a content server. Wherecontent server communication is unavailable, alerts software integrateslocally available external assets with text content received via SMS tocompensate for the absent rich-media elements.

At step 520 of flowchart 500, a rich-media alert is displayed to a userof a mobile device.

FIG. 6A shows exemplary rich-media alert 600 a. Rich media alert type630 corresponds to encoding step 230 in FIG. 2, and governs theformatting and presentation of rich-media alert 600 a transmitted viaSMS. In the present embodiment, alert type specifies a final scorealert. Alert category 640, corresponds to encoding step 230 in FIG. 2,and expedites retrieval of graphical identifiers. In this example, alertcategory specifies NCAA men's basketball.

Payload data for rich-media alert 600 a includes home team identifier662 comprising team name and team logo corresponding to encoding step362 in FIG. 3. Similarly, away team identifier 664 corresponds toencoding step 364. Also included in the payload are home team score 666and away team score 668, corresponding to encoding steps 366 and 368,respectively. “GAME RECAP” 670 provides a user link to additionalinformation on a content server, corresponding to encoding step 370 inFIG. 3. Relevant game timing information 672 is displayed as a result ofencoding step 372. The remainder of the payload for rich-media alert 600a appears as text and statistical information about the game 674, andcorresponds to encoding step 374.

FIG. 6B shows exemplary rich-media alert 600 b. Alert type 630 specifiesthis example as a fantasy news alert. Information received from acontent server during dynamic configuration step 510 in FIG. 5 may allowa rich-media alert user to forward the alert by responding to prompt 610in FIG. 6B. “READ STORY” 670 provides a user link to additionalinformation on a content server, corresponding to encoding step 370 inFIG. 3. Relevant event timing information 672 is displayed as a resultof encoding step 372. The remainder of the payload for rich-media alert600 b appears as text 674 corresponding to encoding step 374.

FIG. 6C shows exemplary rich-media video alert 600 c. Video clip 673 maybe a first, second, or third multimedia element, as described in steps470-476 in FIG. 4. In one embodiment, a video element followed by anaudio element results in both being played simultaneously. Video clip673 and an associated audio element may be external assets retrievedfrom a remote content server, and identified in encoding step 472.

As described in the foregoing, a method and system for transmission anddisplay of rich-media alerts via SMS results in display of multimediaelements unavailable through use of conventional techniques forcommunicating via SMS. Enhanced rich-media content is available with orwithout retrieval of remote multimedia elements from a content server.Consequently, the present invention enables users of mobile devices toobtain rich-media messages utilizing the popular, uniformly implemented,and cost effective SMS communication format.

From the above description of the invention it is manifest that varioustechniques can be used for implementing the concepts of the presentinvention without departing from its scope. Moreover, while theinvention has been described with specific reference to certainembodiments, a person of ordinary skills in the art would recognize thatchanges can be made in form and detail without departing from the spiritand the scope of the invention. As such, the described embodiments areto be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. Itshould also be understood that the invention is not limited to theparticular embodiments described herein, but is capable of manyrearrangements, modifications, and substitutions without departing fromthe scope of the invention.

1. A method of processing a rich-media short message service (SMS)message including a plurality of characters by a mobile device, saidmethod comprising: receiving said rich-media SMS message over a networkby said mobile device; depacketizing said rich-media SMS message by saidmobile device to retrieve an encoded rich-media message and a number ofaddressing characters in said rich-media SMS message; and routing saidencoded rich-media message to a rich-media software application on saidmobile device, according to said number of addressing charactersaddressing said rich-media software application on said mobile device;decoding said encoded rich-media message by said rich-media softwareapplication to generate a first message and rich-media contentinformation; displaying said rich-media content information on saidmobile device.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said rich-media SMSmessage comprises a rich-media alert.
 3. The method of claim 2 whereinsaid rich-media alert includes a sports alert, a weather alert, a newsalert, or a medical alert.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein said mobiledevice is a device capable of displaying a rich-media external assetpreviously stored, without obtaining said rich-media external asset froma content server, including a mobile telephone or a PDA.
 5. The methodof claim 1, further comprising obtaining rich-media content from acontent server, based on said rich-media content information within saidencoded rich-media message.
 6. The method of claim 5 wherein saidrich-media content includes at least one element including a video clip,an audio clip, or an inline graphic.